I definitely don't agree with the claim that xp would be safe, there are numerous ways to highjack a pc running xp, without the the user doing mail, browser or anything on it, just by having it online is a huge security risk, especially without updates, your trading strategy could be at risk, stolen and spread on the internet,
that is the main concern here. ofcourse if you are behind a NAT firewall that would make it a lot harder, but most people only have a software firewalls.
not sure about the bandwidth but I have to believe you on that, I always thought that poor bandwidt gives poor latency. but apparantly not.
Bulls are stupid Animals!especially when Im short!